Photo credit: AP

Adam Oates had lots to say during his breakdown-day interview at Ketler Capitals Iceplex on Wednesday, but the most interesting revelation was that he and star player Alex Ovechkin had an extended text-message chat after the team’s heartbreaking defeat in game seven of the quarterfinal round.

Upon hearing that, RMNB immediately sprung into action, contacting our sister publication across the pond, News of the World. Our brother-from-another-mother Jimmy Murdoch put us in touch with some folks, and voila!– we have recovered this conversation between Oates and Ovechkin.

Related: Adam Oates on Nickelodeon’s GUTS while wearing really high-waisted jeans

It was mid-March and Karl Alzner was on the Internet. Like most twentysomethings, he looked up silly videos on YouTube to kill time. He stumbled across one from early last year — it was of Peter Dill, a basketball player for Seton Hall. Dill scored a single basket in his two years playing for the school, but he did get very excited when his team scored. Alzner played the clip for Mathieu Perreault.

“The guy would just go crazy, pretend he had Thor’s Hammer and he’d be smashing the ground,” Alzner told me Saturday afternoon. “Perry, I could just see his eyes, like ‘this is awesome!’”

“We should do that after we win games,” Perreault responded.

A couple weeks later, Alex Ovechkin put the puck past Jhonas Enroth during a shootout in Buffalo, ensuring a 4-3 victory for Washington. Perry followed through on his agreement with Alzner, letting out a primal scream, pumping his fists, and shaking on the bench. CSN’s cameras zoomed in, GIFs were made, and a meme was born — all within about 20 minutes.

“I didn’t know if he was gonna do it or not — but he did,” Alzner said.

“I get excited when we win!” Perreault added. “It’s just fun.”

A few days after Perreault’s inaugural freakout, the Capitals won another game in the shootout, this time over the New York Islanders, and Matty P. reacted with a manic windmill thing. The Internet took note again. But according to Alzner, he was also going wild at the time, doing some air-archery, a nod to one of Dill’s moves at Seton Hall. No one saw, though, and Alzner gave up trying to match Perreault.

“He’s doing it good — and I haven’t been,” said Alzner.

In the final game of the regular season, Perreault brought back his original convulsing celebration after the Caps beat the Bruins in overtime. Then, when Mike Ribeiro tallied nine minutes and 24 seconds into OT on Friday, Perreault went insane for the forth time.

“He’s a funny dude, so it doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Joel Ward, Perreault’s linemate, said. “For us that’s just a normal episode for him. He’s quite the character.”

There have been parodies, t-shirts, and perpetual replays, but the player at the heart of it has been largely oblivious of the reception the celebrations have gotten. Perreault’s not on Twitter and apart from a few videos, he was unaware it’d now become synonymous with him.

“I didn’t think it was gonna be that big of deal,” Perry said. “I mean, if people like it then it’s good.”

Alzner, though, knew he had something interesting from the start.

“I’m not too surprised,” Alzner said with a wry smile when asked for his reaction to the reaction. “I’m pretty happy about it actually.”

For Perreault, the celebrations are an illustration of his progression this season. It’s silly and it’s funny, but the scene would have seemed foreign back in February. The Caps were awful. Perreault was skating on the fourth line, only getting a few minutes of ice time a night. He hated it. As Adam Oates promised, though, Perreault got his chance. Now Matty P skates on the Washington’s superb third line, part of a Capitals team that hopes to win a Cup.

When that team wins, he celebrates more than anyone.

Photo credit: Kyle Mace

A group of superstar athletes, including Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, signed for fans at an autograph show in Chantilly, Virginia last week. Also appearing at that show were two men, one named after the other. Washington Capitals forward Brooks Laich and Baltimore Orioles great Brooks Robinson signed autographs, and at the end of the event, they finally met.

A few days later, Laich posted a photo of the two on Twitter with the caption, “Special honor for me to meet the man I was named after, Orioles HOF 3rd baseman Brooks Robinson, absolute class act.” That made Capitals and Orioles crossover fans very happy.

Laich told Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post about the experience. “A lot of times we see fans who are sort of awestruck meeting us; for me, that was the reverse side of it.” Laich said he called his dad right after meeting the “Human Vacuum Cleaner” to tell him about the experience. Laich said meeting the baseball Hall of Famer was on his bucket list.

Laich’s father became a fan of Robinson during the Orioles’ magical runs to the World Series during the late 1960s. “He seemed to have just a great approach to the game,” Harold Laich told the National Post. “So he always stuck in my mind as a great competitor – and I said if we ever had a son, we were going to name him Brooks.” Harold had the same idea as many other Orioles fans. People in Baltimore loved Brooks so much, they would name their kids after him, and they still do.

Tuesday night in York, Pennsylvania, the place where Robinson got his start in professional baseball, the Atlantic League’s York Revolution honored the Orioles great by retiring his number. Then after the event, he was asked about meeting Laich, but we also learned of Robinson’s hockey connection.

“My wife grew up on hockey. Her dad owned a hockey team in Canada, the Windsor Spitfires, so she loves hockey. She’ll flip hockey on the TV when I’m watching baseball. I told him I was going to come to a Caps game. I’ve only been over there once or twice.

“Every time I see a Brooks something, my wife will say, ‘Well you know he was named after you.’ I always say, ‘Well I don’t know about that,” said Robinson. “I was at a card show in Chantilly, Virginia and Brooks Laich came by and introduced himself. I told him ‘You aren’t going to believe this, Brooks, but my wife kept saying that you are named after me,’ and bygolly, he said he was!”

Robinson also felt privileged to meet Laich. “I enjoy when someone comes up to me and tells me their son was named after me. We’ve got a whole list of them back in Baltimore and it’s quite an honor.”

Read more of Kyle’s work at Sweetest Hockey on Earth

Photo credit: Tom Wilson’s Instagram

There comes a time in a teenager’s life where the dream of becoming a star athlete dims and must be replaced. At the age of sixteen, that’s what happened to Toronto native Peter Wilson.

“I really fell in love with writing when I was in grade 11,” Wilson, who played hockey competitively as a kid, explained. “I had a really great literature teacher who took me under her wing and showed me some really cool books. I found writing to be really fun and therapeutic.”

In college, Wilson continued to explore literature and challenge himself, just like he did on the ice with hockey. When his passion shifted away from the ice, Wilson dropped gloves with a new opponent: the competitive field of writing.

Defenseless

I guess it’s a good read at the beach? (Photo credit: Peter Wilson)

“During my fourth year at Queen’s University, I set out to write a short novel that was forty- to fifty-thousand words long,” Wilson told me in an interview in early March. “And I did. Then, I went through the whole process of shopping it around and trying to get it published.”

That novel, entitled Defenseless (buy it here), was published by BPS Books in May 2012. A first-person narrative, the protagonist finds himself in a fight which escalates into a vicious beating by six men. With the character’s life changed forever, he tries to figure out what happened. As the pieces come together, his desire for justice becomes a thirst for vengeance. Victim becomes perpetrator.

For Wilson, the book, which sold a couple hundred copies, was a huge success simply because it was a dream realized. The feedback was even more rewarding. A few months after publishing, he received a special note from someone who had gone through a similar experience to that of the narrator. He said Peter’s story helped him through a tough recovery.

“I remember it sinking in at that moment that I had achieved what I wanted,” Wilson said. “I remember thinking in that instant that the work was worth it. That was success, connection.”

Three Hockey-Playing Brothers

Peter, Tom, and James. (Photo credit: Peter Wilson)

On June 22nd, Peter’s middle brother — referred to lovingly as Tommy, heard the sentence that most Canadian boys dream about.

“The Washington Capitals are pleased to select from the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers, Tom Wilson,” announced General Manager George McPhee.

Peter, Tom, and James play hockey with their dad on their backyard rink.

The entire Wilson family had traveled to Pittsburgh that day, hoping their talented 18-year-old would be drafted in the first round. The likelihood of being drafted so high was slight, but with this fanatical hockey family, it was no surprise.

Growing up in a suburb of Toronto, the family had a backyard hockey rink and played together constantly. Peter, the oldest of three Wilson brothers, loved the sport, getting as high the ‘AA’ North Toronto team.

“Tommy was always playing with with me and my friends in our backyard rink,” Peter explained. “That’s how he got exposure to guys five years older than him. He was really competitive out there.” Playing against more talented players as well as being blessed with his own unique physical gifts led Tom to star for Plymouth, a junior hockey team located several hours away from Toronto.

A few years later, James, the youngest of the three Wilson brothers, was drafted by the same junior team Tom was, Plymouth, in the 10th round of the 2012 OHL Draft. He currently plays in AAA.

As these events unfolded, Peter set out to write his second book.

“It’s Kinda My Love Letter to Hockey”

Photo credit: Peter Wilson

Wilson’s second book, entitled They Play Hockey In Heaven (buy a personalized copy here for $12), is a gripping, 126-page read about how one of the hockey-playing Austin brothers deals with the death of his father and the closing of the old rink where his family’s bond was strongest. Making it his mission to re-open the rink no matter what, the brother works through  a series of challenges to accomplish what his dad failed to before his death. The journey repairs a community and allows his family to find peace.

While They Play Hockey In Heaven is fiction, many of the details are drawn from Peter’s vast background in the sport that he and his brothers so deeply love. It even includes a fight between both Austin brothers, which you have to assume is something Peter did with Tom as kids.

“You could compare the book to the Field of Dreams, but for hockey,” Peter explained during our call. “It’s kinda my love letter to hockey. If you like the sport I think you’ll like and identify with this book.”

Peter has already gotten a bunch of support from his little brother on Twitter. Tom has instagrammed a photo of the book and he’s also tweeted out links to buy it. And then there’s the support he got from frigging rock legend Tom Cochrane, the man best known for singing “Life is a Highway.”

Before each chapter begins, lyrics from Cochrane’s Big League appear.

“I actually had the opportunity to send it to him and have him read it,” Wilson said. “I didn’t really think anything of it initially, but then a few weeks later, I had an email from Tommy Cochrane. That was probably my wow moment of this book.”

In fact, Cochrane loved the story so much, he wrote a glowing recommendation for it, which was both a surreal and exciting moment for Wilson. Part of it read, “[This book] is a must read for any Canadian who is truly connected to their cultural roots in our country.” Capitals fans will love it too.

They Play Hockey In Heaven is just another notch in the belt for an uber-talented Canadian family that will see Tom Wilson make his NHL debut in the not-so-distant future. Peter’s book honors the game and connects it with real-world problems.

On page 124 he writes, “There are thousands of distractions and obstacles when you are trying to score. Trying to achieve a goal and score a goal. You have to be focused. You can’t let anything get in your way. You can’t give up. That’s why hockey is the best place to learn about life.”

That’s the stuff. Buy it here.

Book trailer.

“What’d you call me?” (GIF by jaybeagles)

Hockey players are accustomed to terrible nicknames; they’ve got a lot. The current iteration of the Washington Capitals includes Patsy (Aaron Volpatti), Crabber (Joey Crabb), and Carly (John Carlson). Now we know Steve Oleksy‘s too, though he won’t be happy with RMNB once his teammates read this. See: Oleksy’s lifelong nickname isn’t Stevie O (as head Adam Oates called him); it’s Binky. And we’ve got the story behind that.

“When I was younger, I was sick and I was in the hospital quite a bit,” Oleksy told me recently. “I called my pacifier my binky, and every time I started crying the nurses would tell my mom to put my binky in. She started calling me that, and then the kids at school caught on, and it just kind of grew with me.”

“That’s been my nickname my whole life growing up, and it’s stuck with me all the way through every level of hockey I’ve played,” he added. “People find out and it catches on. A lot of people back home don’t even know me by my real name, they know me by Binky. It’s kind of stuck with me through the years. It’s not something that I try to hide from.”

The rise of Oleksy — nickname and all — from an undrafted minor league player to getting big minutes with the Capitals is remarkable. He didn’t become a full-time AHL player until this season and was something of a role player even in Hershey. But thanks to a bruised-up Caps blue line and Oates’s insistence on a balancing right-handed and lefty shots, Oleksy has joined what is ostensibly the team’s top pairing– alongside Karl Alzner. He’s now getting more than 20 minutes of ice time a night. In nine games, Oleksy has scored four points, including his first NHL goal.

“As a hockey player you prepare for that,” Oleksy said of his playing time. “I don’t think you should be a hockey player if you don’t want to be on the ice every second of every game.”

“At every level you just play the game,” he continued. “That what I try to do here.”

Still, it’s significant change to go from playing in front of 200 fans in an old barn to starting next to Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom on national television.

“They’re teammates now; I look at them as teammates just like any other,” said Oleksy of his new colleagues. “They joke, they have a good time, they’re fun to be around. When you got a group of guys like that, it makes things a lot easier to play in that situation — you’re not so astounded.”

But back to Oleksy’s nickname, which he seems to have squashed before he got to the pros. It’s currently unknown in Washington’s locker room. According to Braden Holtby, even with the Bears most players didn’t know it.

“It never caught on,” Holtby said. “I think he kept that under wraps in Hershey pretty well.”

A few guys, however, did find out. Holtby was one of them.

“I knew about one time because I was at his house and on his computer it said ‘Binky’s Computer’ or something like that,” he said. “I was like ‘Who is that?’ One of the guys told me. It’s one of those nicknames where it’d be pretty funny if it caught on.”

Yes. It would be funny, but how could it possibly catch on?

Oh. Right. We made a shirt.

(From now until March 23rd, if you buy two RMNB shirts, you get free shipping. Just enter EASTER2013 during checkout.)

Additional reporting and shirt by Ian Oland. Thanks to Rachel O’Brien for the tip.

I saw this on eBay and I just had to have it. Capitals Sport & Decor, a memorabilia shop at Dulles Town Center, sometimes hosts signings with Washington Capitals players. They put up some of their extra signed merchandise up on eBay, and that’s where I unearthed this gem. It’s a signed 16 x 20 photo of Capitals defenseman Jeff Schultz checking Sidney Crosby down to the ice. Schultz’s signature is at bottom. To the left is an inscription that reads, “Hows the Wood Sid!”

I repeat: “Hows the Wood Sid!”

This is problematic for me. First, there should be a comma after wood to set off the direct address. Second, how’s is a contraction of how is, and should have an apostrophe. The exclamation instead of a question mark I’m gonna let slide on stylistic grounds.

…and, oh yeah, what the actual hell does “Hows the Wood Sid!” mean?

Other offerings from Capitals Sport & Decor are similarly inscribed. For example, Brooks Laich tells Sid to “Sit Down” and “Can’t Catch Me.” It seems like there’s a cottage industry of Sharpie-drawn trash talk that we’re just now discovering. More please.

Orlov returns! (Photo credit: Sweetest Hockey On Earth’s Tim Stough)

Playing at Verizon Center on December 6th, an unfriendly shoulder was planted under Dmitry Orlov‘s chin, resulting in an upper body injury that would keep him away from the game he loves for the next three months.

On Saturday night, Orlov was finally back in action– playing for the Hershey Bears against the Norfolk Admirals. Less than a minute into the game, Orlov hoisted the puck over the glass, earning a delay-of-game penalty. Not the start he was loooking for, but — as he tells RMNB- Orlov was just happy to be back in action.

How serious was the injury, and was it hard to come back from it?

Frankly, I don’t even want to talk about it. I am back to playing hockey, and that’s all that matters to me right now!

Did you feel nervous when the game started? Is that maybe why you had that delay of game penalty called against you?

I wasn’t really nervous – either before the game, or when it started. It was just a coincidence – I was unlucky trying to get the puck out of our zone. And then on top of that, we let one in while I was in the penalty box. I was just trying to clear the puck out, but miscalculated slightly – and the puck ended up over the glass.

While you were injured, your Bears teammate Tomas Kundratek surprised a lot of people with his play for the Capitals.

I am not at all surprised by his success in Washington. That’s how it works – someone gets injured on the big team, he gets a call and a chance to impress! Great for him that he is not wasting this opportunity. I think he is working as hard as he can, he wants to play in the NHL; it’s every hockey player’s dream.

With no other Russians on the team, is your English getting better?

Yes, it’s a bit easier when there are other Russian guys on the team, but that’s not how it is right now. I think my English is improving. I would love to speak fluent English, and I am putting a lot of effort into learning the language; it’s far from perfect, of course, right now, but I think it is much better than what I had in the beginning.

Are you in any way discouraged by how things have gone for you lately?

This is my second [full] season in North America. That’s all I am concentrating on for now. I only played in 19 games so far this season. And I missed the game so much! But there is still time this season, two more months to go, so I am looking forward to the chance to work myself back into shape, to get comfortable on the ice, and to gain back my confidence. I have to admit during these three months [away from hockey] I lost a bit of what I had worked on; I need to work on getting it back.

Photo credit: Sweetest Hockey On Earth’s Tim Stough

Maybe you didn’t notice, but my name was missing from all RMNB stories and bylines last week. I was in Las Vegas for an Email Marketing conference held at the Paris Hotel and Casino. Thursday in particular was a crazy day. It started with a murder that made national news and ended with an run-in with a celebrity.

Photo credit: Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun

On Thursday, my eyes opened at 4:30 AM Pacific time. I was woken up by a helicopter hovering over our hotel. Helicopters usually fly around Las Vegas during the day giving aerial tours to tourists, so I figured that’s what it was. I fell back asleep.

Two hours later my phone started vibrating. I got about 25 texts from friends and family asking if I was okay. That helicopter over the hotel wasn’t for tourists; it was looking for a murderer.

The Las Vegas Sun:

The Las Vegas Strip became a scene of deadly violence early Thursday when someone in a black Range Rover opened fire on a Maserati, sending it crashing into a taxi that burst into flames, leaving three people dead and at least six injured.

A few hours earlier, my co-workers and I had walked up and down that same part of the strip, taking in the sights and watching the Bellagio Water Show.

The Paris Hotel and Casino is one block away from that intersection. From the eleventh story, I could see the yellow tape cordoning off the area where it happened. I went downstairs for breakfast, where two of my co-workers said that they heard the gunshots from their room.

A scary start to the day, but things got a lot better from there.

The email marketing presentations ended at 5:30 PM , and my coworker Nikki and I went upstairs to get ready for the show we had VIP tickets for.

Taylor Hicks, winner of the fifth season of American Idol over Katherine McPhee (currently starring in the NBC series Smash), headlines a show at Napoleon’s Lounge in the Paris Hotel and Casino. It’s hard to not enjoy Hicks’ soulful voice and energetic stage performances– no matter your age. Plus, he can play the bejesus out of a harmonica and has awesome grey hair.

Here’s Hicks performing a live rendition of Michael McDonald’s Takin’ It To The Streets.

So I put on my RMNB “Angry Ovi” shirt, Nikki put on her dress, and we went downstairs to wait in line for the show.

When we were let in, we were shuttled to a backstage bar area to wait for Hicks to come in. The musician arrived ten minutes later, greeting us all with a big HEY and an even bigger smile. He then signed autographs for everybody in the room.

As I made my way up to Hicks, his eyes got big when he noticed my RMNB t-shirt. I asked him to sign it. Hicks then did something I did not at all expect — especially considering he’s from Birmingham, Alabama, not a hotbed for hockey. He added a special note: I Love Ovi. I swear I am not making this up.

Shocked, I asked if we could take a picture together. We posed and pointed to the autograph.

Taylor Hicks playing the harmonica.

Nikki and myself made our way to the main lobby area and took our seats near the stage.

Twenty minutes later, the showed started. Hicks sang Elvis’s In The Ghetto, Nineteen, and The Fall. He told stories about American Idol, like how he and Simon Cowell would smoke during the commercial breaks. He talked about performing on Broadway in Grease. He gave a shout-out to a grandmother celebrating her 95th birthday and dancing to his songs. His guitar player looked eerily like Alex Semin.

After the show ended, Hicks went over to the merch area set up outside of the club and signed autographs for people who bought his stuff. I got in line, as I had a few questions to ask.

I asked him how he knew about Ovi. He said he’s seen highlights — like The Goal — and thought he was a great player. I asked him if he had ever sung the anthem or been to a hockey game before. He said no, but would really love to someday. I then said,”If you’re ever in DC, I’d love to take you to a game.”

Hicks left the merch table, talked to his assistant, and then came back with a business card. It had his tour manager’s info on it. He handed it over to me and said,”Talk to him. I’d love to do it. Let’s make it happen.” I accepted and said,”Deal!” So yeah. That’s how my day ended. Even four thousand miles away, I can’t help but try to spread Caps cheer.

Now I know that I have failed so far in my efforts so far to get Barack Obama to come to a Caps game, but getting a former American Idol Winner to come to a game (and maybe sing the anthem) would be pretty cool.

So here’s what I want you guys to do. Hit that that big blue like button at the bottom of this post. Let’s let Taylor know he’s welcome. On Tuesday, I’ll shoot his people a message and re-invite him. I can’t promise anything, but let’s make his first hockey game a Washington Capitals game. Thanks in advance for your help!

Brouwer conservatively celebrating. (Photo credit: Patrick McDermott)

A few weeks ago, Michael Wurman, Director of Game Entertainment and TV Production for the Washington Capitals, teased a special goal celebration for Troy Brouwer. During the Capitals open practice at Verizon Center on January 17, Brouwer busted a move and performed PSY’s Gangnam Style dance in skates. Wurman threatened that once Brouwer scores, that footage would be seen again.

“That song. Oy,” Wurman said. “But the people have spoken, they want it.”

On Friday, after Brouwer scored his third goal of the year with a perfectly placed shot over Ilya Bryzgalov’s right shoulder, Wurman gave the people what they wanted.

Video expertly taken by Melissa Allen. Everybody follow her at @Love4Greenie.

With PSY’s Gangnam Style blasting over the speakers, Brouwer dances on the jumbotron.

“It’s one of those times where I had a lot of time,” Brouwer said of his goal after Saturday’s optional practice. “I had a good look, and I was able to make my shot. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out perfectly in a game, and you’re a lot more rushed.”

But Troy, the jumbotron. What did you think of the game ops guys playing your dance?

“I have no problems with it,” Troy said with a laugh. “I think it’s funny!”

Brouwer continued: “I know everyone wants me to do it after a goal,” he admitted. “But it’s kind of tough to do something like that. That’s usually terms for getting into a fight. I’d love to be able to treat the fans, but, at the same time, we don’t need that crap [in hockey].”

Wrong, Troy. Yes, we do.

A before and after shot of Wes with his health coach Elaine.

On December 6, 2012, while the NHL lockout was in its 82nd day, employees of the Washington Capitals game entertainment crew reunited for hockey for the first time in seven months. The Caps AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, played the Norfolk Admirals in front of a sold out crowd. Hours before the game, arena employees met near the Caps locker room area for a briefing.

As PA Announcer Wes Johnson entered the room, Michael Wurman, Director of Game Entertainment and TV Products, pointed over to the man that many referred to as “Big Guy.” “There have been quite a few changes over the offseason,” Wurman said with a big smile. “And one of them just so happens to be sitting over here: Wes.”

The room gave Johnson a round of applause. “It was very gratifying,” Johnson told me in a phone interview. “And a little embarrassing too.”

“You’re probably in the last five to ten years of your life”

During a winter day a few years ago, Johnson walked out the front door of his Virginia home to run a few errands. As he made his way to his car, the 51-year-old actor, voice-over artist, and comedian, slipped on a patch of ice in his driveway. Despite his five-foot, nine-inch height, Johnson took a big tumble to the ground, ripping ligaments in his ankle.

When Wes went to get his ankle checked out, the doctor was more concerned about Johnson’s weight. With a busy work schedule and three kids at home, Wes saw his weight balloon over the years. The PA Announcer was also too charitable with his time, never quite able to turn down a request to hang out after Capitals games. “You don’t want to give up the after-the-game meal,” he told me. “You don’t want to give up going for drinks with folks.”

After years of constantly doing things for other people, finding no time for exercise, and putting no limits on what he ate, his body pushed back: hard. Johnson became diabetic and had to take multiple medicines for high blood pressure.

“You know, Wes,” the doctor began. “If you don’t do something about your weight, you’re probably in the last five to ten years of your life.”

“That’s pretty scary to hear,” Johnson admitted.

The doctor recommended Johnson have a gastric bypass, an aggressive surgery which reduces the size of a person’s stomach to force weight loss. Today show weather man Al Roker lost 150 pounds due to the procedure.

“I was nervous about that,” Wes said. “That’s a permanent solution. A permanent change to your body just so that you can make something else take over with the will power that you can’t muster yourself.”

He went home with a brace for his ankle and a lot on his mind.

A Chance Encounter

Before one of the final home games of the 2011-12 regular season, Wes went upstairs to the press area to hoard some refreshments.

“I was getting a bunch of bottled waters to take down to the penalty box area where I emcee, because once you get inside the penalty box for the game, you’re locked in there,” Johnson explained. “You don’t come out for intermissions. During a playoff game, you could suffer renal failure because you’re in there for overtime after overtime after overtime.”

As Wes was stocking up, he ran into another Verizon Center employee, Elaine Rom. Rom, who has worked for the Capitals since 1996 as a camera operator, is also a certified health coach during the day with Take Shape For Life, a division of Medifast. When Rom saw Johnson with so much water, she was intrigued. It usually signals someone who is on a diet trying to lose weight.

“For a lot of people, drinking a lot of water is the hardest part,” Rom told me in an email. “So I started a conversation with him and asked if he really drinks all that water. He said he does. Then I told him what I do.”

“Now if you’re a heavy-set guy, and if someone starts talking to you about a health coach thing, you get the same alarming sensation that you would get when a Jehovah’s witness asks for a few hours to talk,” Johnson told me. “But she was really nice. She told me that there were things she could do to get me back to a better weight. She said it in such a cool, casual way. She gave me her number, and I didn’t think anything of it.”

“I look at this way,” Rom said. “A lot of people would love to choose health over being unhealthy, most of the time they don’t know how to get there. If you don’t open this door for them, you’ll never know if this could’ve been the program to turn their health and their life around.”

The two would run into each other once or twice again. One night, she even visited Wes after a game at the penalty box where he sits. “I started thinking more and more,” Johnson said. “Maybe this is something I should do.”

Pulling The Trigger

At the end of May, after the Capitals were eliminated by the New York Rangers, Johnson continued his conversations with Rom. He decided to pull the trigger on the weight-loss plan.

“Sticking around for my family was a huge influence on me,” Johnson said. “My sons– I have two of them in college and one’s mid-way through high school– and I want to see them all graduate. I want to see them get married. I want to see them have kids.”

Johnson continued: “Being around for my wife. I’ve waited my whole life for somebody as sweet and as wonderful as her.”

There was one tiny caveat, however. Johnson would begin Rom’s plan in five weeks on Independence Day or as Wes put it: “my independence-from-weight day.” Before then, he wanted a few weeks to say goodbye to some, um, close friends.

“The last few weeks of June,” Johnson said. “You’ll never see someone eat as shittily as I did.” He called his binge “The Wes Johnson Foods-I-Love Farewell Tour.”

First, Wes went to Mario’s and had a foot-long Triple Cheese and Egg sub. “You eat one of those things and it knocks you in a coma for three days,” Johnson said with a laugh. Another night, he went to the Irish Channel and had some sirloin dips. Finally, the PA announcer went to The Celebrity Delly in Falls Church, where they have a sandwich named after him. The “Wes Johnson” is grilled roast beef, melted Muenster cheese, creamy cole slaw, and Russian dressing served on grilled sourdough.

Then July 4th came around, and it was time to get down to some serious business.

“The first week I lost 18 pounds”

On July 4th, Johnson went on the Medifast plan, a diet consisting of five small meals and one lean and green meal per day.

The first week was tough as Johnson found himself eating smaller portions than he was accustomed to. After just a few days, he noticed a difference. “Your metabolism starts to catch up,” Johnson said. “For the first time since my mid-30′s, my metabolism came back. My metabolism was suddenly working again.”

Even after just a change in diet, Wes saw immediate results. “The first week I lost 18 pounds,” Johnson revealed. “It was incredible. And then I continued on.”

Johnson lost anywhere from one to five pounds per week, posting his weekly weigh in on his Facebook timeline. He began to take brisk walks around his neighborhood. Three weeks into the diet, Wes went to the gym. He made a new friend: the elliptical machine. “At first I started walking for about 10 minutes,” Johnson said. “Then I’d go to 15 minutes,, and then I’d go a little farther.” Johnson was shedding weight.

About a month into the diet though, there was a scary moment. The family went on vacation to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. One day while he was there, he felt woozy, close to passing out. Fearful there was something seriously wrong, Johnson went to see a doctor.

“You know what it was?” Johnson recalled. “It was the fact that I was getting healthier and my blood pressure medication I was taking was suddenly too strong. It was over compensating. So the doctor lowered it.”

What could have been a set-back actually became a galvanizing moment for Wes’s turnaround.

“Now I’m going over 4 miles and 40 minutes on the elliptical,” Johnson said. “I love going out and walking. I go for a brisk mile walk, even in the winter time. It’s wonderful.”

Most importantly, he has the support in Rom that he never had before. “Elaine has a sixth sense. If I start to waver, I will suddenly get a text from her and she helps me out. It’s nice to have a little angel on your shoulder.”

The Less Johnson

Since Johnson began his Medifast diet and exercise regiment, he’s lost 92 pounds in six months. He’s been taken off of two blood pressure medications and, oh, by the way, he’s no longer diabetic.

Not only does Wes feel better in general, the weight loss has helped him land new acting roles. He was in a national VISA commercial with Ray Lewis and landed a role in Veep, an HBO series, featuring former Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. “Would I have gotten those if I weighed 90 pounds more?,” Johnson rhetorically asked. “I don’t think I would have. It puts me in a brand new weight-category as far as acting is concerned.”

Johnson’s dramatic weight loss has inspired those around him. Rom and Johnson recently met with other Caps fans looking to lose weight. After hearing his story, five of them started with the Medifast plan and are already losing weight. Even Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has reached out to Johnson. “He was proud of my effort and he said it was inspirational. Then I turn around and I see Ted’s losing weight too.” During the Capitals home game Sunday against the Sabres, CSN panned to a svelte-looking Leonsis looking on from his lower-level suite.

“Wes is this genuinely passionate and kindhearted person,” Rom said of Johnson. “You can’t help but root for the guy. He’s made me shed a tear or two along the way.”

Meanwhile, I wondered what Johnson thought about the fact that now that he’s on the diet, he can’t even eat his own sandwich at The Celebrity Delly.

“I’ve gone in there many times with people since and I encourage them to order the Wes Johnson Sandwich. But I order myself a salad. I think eventually, I would like for them to have a Wes Johnson sandwich and a Less Johnson salad.”

Yeah, Celebrity Delly. I think Wes deserves that.